Gold Coast will distribute 22-ounce bottles of New Belgium brew to restaurants and bars, or "on-premise" accounts, simultaneously across their four-state distribution area: Palm Beach, Broward, Miami and Monroe counties. Gold Coast is the largest distributor of beer in the state of Florida with over 26 million cases of beer sold last year.

Bottles will be sold to on-premise vendors for the first 30 days followed by drafts. The expectation is that bars and restaurants with strong bottle sales will be the first ones to have New Belgium taps. Expect to see bottles become available at retail locations, and other off-premise accounts, such as Total Wine and More and other stores after the first month as well.

Apparently New Belgium was also considering expanding to the northeast United States, but they chose Florida, according to Dougherty, who says Gold Coast has been trying to persuade New Belgium to come to the southeast Florida market for a few years. But he's fairly certain that this probably did not have anything to do with their decision.

"By nailing down New Belgium brewery it was just a feather in the cap for us," Dougherty said. "Making it to Florida is a big statement. It's really the last frontier of beer exploration."

Dougherty said the decision was most likely based on logistics and the fact that Florida is budding market for craft beer. New Belgium has shipping capacity for only one region, since fuel and transportation tend to be cost-prohibitive when shipping their product to far-off markets.

David Minsky is U.S. Navy veteran and Tulane graduate who has experience reporting on stories from California, South Florida, and the Deep South. He also won some journalism awards. Email or tweet David with story tips and ideas.